Kielich delivers OT winner for Marksmen

By Rodd Baxley, Staff writer

Saturday

Nov 17, 2018 at 12:01 AM

Tim Kielich's first professional goal came at the perfect time on Friday night.

With just over a minute left in overtime at the Crown Coliseum, Kielich found the back of the net with an unassisted goal to lift the Fayetteville Marksmen to a 4-3 win over Knoxville in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

"For all the guys on our team to get one, I was really happy that he was the guy because he's been playing great," Fayetteville coach Jesse Kallechy said.

"For him to finally get rewarded, I couldn't be happier. It's not a bad way to get your first goal."

Darren McCormick, who netted a pair of goals to push his season total to eight, gave the Marksmen (4-4-1) a 3-2 lead early in the third period before Knoxville's Stanislav Dzakhov scored his second goal of the night with five minutes remaining to send it to the extra session.

While he was happy to come away with a second consecutive overtime victory, Kallechy said his team has to "find a way to close out games." The Marksmen led in regulation in each of their past three contests.

"It shows our youth, but I also think it shows our resiliency in being able to find a way to come back and win these games," he said.

"It's not always pretty, but you want to get all the points you can early in the season. We haven't been able to hold on to (the lead), but I'm proud of the guys for being able to get in done in overtime."

Knoxville (2-4-2) took an early 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Eliot Grauer in the first period, but Fayetteville responded in the second frame with goals by Travis Jeke and McCormick. Dzakhov tied the game in the final minute of the second period to knot the game at 2.

Goalie Alex Murray finished with 35 saves for the Marksmen in a performance Kallechy said was "awesome."

"He's been our best player the last three games," Kallechy added.

"To win games, sometimes your goalie has to be your best player. He's done a great job giving us a chance to win and he's been really good. He's the reason that we've had a chance for sure.

Fayetteville will be back on home ice tonight in a 6 p.m. game against Roanoke.

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3519.

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